The Boulder County Jail is now housing less than 300 inmates, down from about 500 in mid-March due to the facility’s efforts to reduce the population in the hopes of avoiding an outbreak of the new coronavirus.

It is part of an unprecedented reduction in population that is underway across the state in an effort to prevent a breakout of the virus in jails and prisons, which are especially vulnerable to the spread of contagious diseases.

“This is unheard of,” Goetz said of the current population at the Boulder County Jail. “In the 30 years that I’ve worked here, we have not been this low.”

While the jail has stopped receiving inmate transfers from other facilities, Goetz said the jail is still taking in arrestees from Boulder County agencies and screening new inmates as they come in for the virus. A nurse meets them before they enter the building and asks them a series of questions, including whether they have a fever or symptoms of an upper respiratory infection.

“Everyone is still getting tested through our screening procedures,” Goetz said. “If they meet all the checkboxes, they are quarantined and our medical unit follows their protocol.”

As of Thursday, Goetz said no inmates have tested positive or are in quarantine awaiting test results.

The total population of the 15 largest county jails in Colorado dropped to 7,708 on Friday, 31% less than the combined average daily population of 11,002 the facilities reported in January, according to data collected by the ACLU of Colorado and provided to The Denver Post.

Neighboring Weld County’s jail population has fallen 15% from its average daily population of 754 to the 639 inmates recorded Monday.

Gov. Jared Polis last week issued guidance that Colorado’s criminal justice system should work to reduce the number of people detained across the state while maintaining public safety. But the guidance was not mandatory, and the success of jail depopulation has varied by local jurisdiction.

“It’s not uniform across the state in a way that we’d like to see,” Denise Maes, public policy director for the ACLU, told the Denver Post. “We’d hope to see even greater depopulation numbers as time goes on.”

Mitchell Byars has been reporting for the Daily Camera since 2011, covering breaking news and courts. He is originally from Hawaii and enjoys the beach, camping, golf, beer and writing third-person bios about himself that exaggerate how outdoorsy he is.